Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-01
2002-12-10
Lieu, Julie (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S693500, C340S539230
Reexamination Certificate
active
06492907
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to smoke detector units and, more particularly, to apparatus securely connecting detector units to electrical systems in a home or building.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The risk and extent of property loss, personal injury, and death from fire and smoke can be minimized when smoke detectors are properly employed to provide warning during the initial stages of a fire. Laws in many jurisdictions require that smoke and/or heat detectors be provided in public and commercial buildings and private homes. This has led to the development of a wide variety of commercially available smoke detectors, some of which are battery operated and some of which are connected to the electrical system of a home or building by a permanent wiring connection or by reception of the male plugs on their power cords in female wall outlets.
A permanent wiring connection is preferable, but costly and difficult to install after construction of a home or building. A drawback of using a permanent wiring connection is the necessity that the smoke detector be connected at the location of the permanent wiring connection. This may result in the smoke detector being mounted in an inaccessible or non-ideal location. Smoke detectors that plug into a female wall outlet are susceptible to inadvertent removal from the female wall outlet. There may be excess length of power cord between the smoke detector and the female wall outlet. The excess length may be pulled, such as by a vacuum cleaner or a foot of person, thus pulling the male plugs from the female wall outlet and disconnecting the power supply to the smoke detector. The male plugs may also be removed from the female wall outlet for access to the female wall outlet by a user. This presents the risk that the user will inadvertently forget to reinsert the male plugs into the smoke detector, thus rendering the smoke detector inoperable.
Fire safety experts often recommend that smoke alarm detectors be placed on or near the ceiling of a room and preferably near the center. A problem with ceiling mounted detectors powered by batteries, rechargeable or otherwise, is that they are difficult to reach and deactivate in the event that the alarm is inadvertently triggered by a condition which is not dangerous. For example, ordinary cigarette and cooking smoke have the capability to trigger a smoke alarm, as does steam from a kitchen or a shower, and a triggered alarm will normally remain operative until the alarm triggering condition dissipates or someone deactivates the device. Furthermore, fire safety experts recommend that ceiling mounted detectors powered by rechargeable batteries be tested at least every six months to ensure that the batteries are still operational, and nonrechargeable batteries must be replaced fairly often.
Testing, recharging, and replacing batteries in a smoke alarm is often accomplished by pushing a button or other activating switch on the body of the detector. It can be difficult or impossible, however, particularly for elderly or infirmed persons, to reach ceiling mounted detectors or wall-mounted detectors at higher altitudes for these purposes.
Residential home owners who live in locations where construction codes do not require hard-wired smoke detectors or live in structures built prior to existing code requirements also may need smoke alarm detectors that are not powered exclusively by batteries. For example, a residential home owner may prefer the safety and convenience of having a hard-wired type smoke detector instead of having the inconsistent reliability of battery powered smoke detectors.
Prior smoke detectors have attempted to address the various problems facing battery powered smoke detectors. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,500, which discloses a smoke detector that is threaded into a light fixture, using the wiring thereto as its power source. While the disclosed detector does not depend upon batteries for operation, the detector may be inadvertently turned off by the light switch which controls the ceiling light fixture.
Despite the existing laws and building codes pertaining to smoke detectors, it is estimated that at least one-third of all battery powered smoke detectors are inoperable at a given point in time due to depleted or absent batteries. However, as many existing dwellings were not built to allow for hard-wired AC detectors and have no immediate means by which to utilize the more reliable AC models, they have been forced to rely on battery powered units.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, an apparatus that provides uninterrupted power to a smoke detector unit from a home's or building's electrical system is provided. Unlike smoke detectors that are hard-wired to electrical systems, the present apparatus provides a home owner or building occupant significant flexibility in term of where to locate the detector unit while still securing uninterrupted access to the power provided by the electrical system of the home or building.
In a preferred form, the apparatus includes a power supply line of adjustable length with an integral outlet cover plate and male plug blades at one end. In this manner, one can remove the existing cover plate, insert the male plug blades into the wall outlet, and fasten the integral cover plate to the wall or ceiling to prevent accidental disconnections of the power supply line from the electrical system of the home or building. Another form of the apparatus allows a user to use the female socket of a standard lamp to provide uninterrupted power from the electrical system to the smoke detector unit via a blocking member of the smoke detector unit that covers the lamp switch in the on position, and an outlet cover that maintains the lamp cord plugged into the wall outlet. In yet another form of the apparatus, one can use the apparatus with the wiring of a light fixture. Either a protective sheath can be provided on the smoke detector unit for covering a switch, e.g., a pull chain, at the light fixture, or a wall switch faceplate can be used for covering a standard wall switch. In this form where the blocking member is the wall switch faceplate, the smoke detector unit can include a socket connected to internal power circuitry, and the wall switch faceplate can include a radio transmitter with a switch for sending a radio signal to receiving circuitry that provides power through the internal power circuitry to a female lightbulb socket formed in the smoke detector unit.
As is apparent, the present apparatus allows considerable latitude in determining the location of the smoke detector unit rather than having the location preset as dictated by a permanent wiring connection, placed by a home builder or the like, while still securing access to uninterrupted power from the electrical system of a home or building unlike prior plug in types using only power cords. In various forms, the apparatus allows the user to change the length of the power supply line to allow the unit to be mounted at various locations without excess length of the power supply line exposed for accidental contact by a vacuum cleaner or a person's foot. The locations can be remote from the wall outlet, or next to any lamp in the home or building, or using the wiring for any light fixture in the home or building. In each of the above-described forms, substantially uninterrupted power from the electrical system of the home or business to the smoke detector unit is maintained by way of an integral mounting plate or a blocking member and/or outlet covers.
In a preferred form of the invention the smoke detector apparatus includes a small, portable smoke detector unit that is capable of installation in the home or building. The smoke detector unit has a smoke detecting mechanism therein. The smoke detecting mechanism may comprise ionization type detection and/or photoelectric detection. An audible alarm is provided for sounding when the smoke detection mechanism detects dangerous amounts of smoke in the home or building. The smok
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Lieu Julie
LandOfFree
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